But Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound both take their place here as part of the official Harrison solo canon. With All Things Must Pass generally considered Harrison’s proper album debut – and perhaps the greatest solo album recorded by a Beatle – it’s inevitable that the two albums that preceded it would be considered curios.
GEORGE HARRISON ALL THINGS MUST PASS REMASTERED REVIEW SERIES
As a solo artist, he inaugurated the label’s LP series with 1968’s Wonderwall Music soundtrack and nearly closed it out with the final Apple album of original material ( Extra Texture). At Apple, he lent his talent to records by Badfinger, Jackie Lomax, Lon and Derrek Von Eaton, Radha Krsna Temple, Doris Troy, Billy Preston and others. Though the Apple story didn’t turn out quite as planned, Harrison thrived both as a solo artist and as the most prolific producer in the Fab Four. The Beatles established Apple Records with lofty goals, envisioning a kind of musical utopia for the band and for talented newcomers whom they would shepherd to success. Whether purchased individually or as one package, these discs offer a fresh perspective on Harrison’s most prolific years. All of the individual CDs are also available as standalone releases, though a DVD of bonus material will remain exclusive to the box. The all-star Concert for Bangla Desh is not included it last saw a deluxe reissue in 2005. This new cube-style box set, designed to complement 2004’s Dark Horse Years 1976-1992 collection, includes new, beautifully-remastered digipak editions of Harrison’s six Apple LPs beginning with 1968’s Wonderwall Music – the very first solo album by any Beatle – and continuing with the even more experimental Electronic Sound as issued on the Zapple label (1969), the acclaimed triple-LP All Things Must Pass (1970), Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974) and Harrison’s Apple swansong Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975). He also refused to “say what’s been said before,” experimenting with various sonic palettes during this creatively fertile period which saw the collapse of the most important band in music history and the birth of a solo artist who struggled to find his place “living in the material world,” and made that struggle a major part of his life in song. Over the six albums contained in this small box of wonders, the onetime “Quiet Beatle” eschewed the virtues of silence to speak volumes through his music. Harrison’s lifetime of work was marked by its forward thinking, a trajectory that is eloquently expressed on the new box set The Apple Years 1968-1975. Those lyrics, penned by George Harrison for his song “That is All,” could be directed to a female lover or to a higher power, but the sentiment rang true for the artist in any circumstance.
“Silence often says much more/Than trying to say what’s been said before/But that is all I want to do/To give my love to you…”